Wilderness House Literary Review 1/3 The Long Black Veil By Robert Cooperman $12.95, paper Higganum Hill Books PO Box 666, Higganum CT 06441 (860) 345-4103
[email protected] ISBN 0-9776556-1-X Reviewed by Steve Glines I am rarely speechless but this little volume left me in just such a state. I have had this thin poetic novel on my desk, glairing at me, for several months. I have read it and reread it and read it again. I rarely do that. It’s a moving, nuanced novella in poetry. I am haunted by the story and have found myself, at odd times, breaking into the chorus of the original tune on which this story was based, “The Long Black Veil.” By Marijohn Wilkin and Danny Dill. Long Black Veil Ten years ago, on a cold dark night There was someone killed 'neath the townhall light, There were few at the scene, but the all agreed That the stranger who fled looked a lot like me Refrain: Nobody knows, nobody sees, nobody knows but me The judge said son what is your alibi, If you were somewhere else, then you won't have to die I spoke not a word, though it ment my life, For I'd been in the arms of my best friends wife Chorus: She walks these hills in a long black veil, She visits my grave where the night winds wail. Refrain The scaffold was high, and eternity near, She stood in the crown and shed not a tear. But sometimes at night, when the cold wind moans, In a long black veil, she cries on my bones.